


Up in Smoke

by writworm42



Series: Aftercare fics [5]
Category: RuPaul's Drag Race RPF
Genre: Aftercare, Feelings, Fluff with a side of angst, M/M, brooke stops smoking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-20
Updated: 2019-07-20
Packaged: 2020-07-09 13:27:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19888567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writworm42/pseuds/writworm42
Summary: Brooke used to use cigarettes to bring her down from domspace. Now that she's quit, she needs to find something else to help.





	Up in Smoke

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you holtzmanns for beta-ing, cheering me on, and once again encouraging me to push myself to become a better writer <3
> 
> Doms need aftercare too! Domspace is also a headspace people get into, and doms do need care to get out of it. BDSM dynamics are not always about the sub and the sub is not the only one who needs support, respect, and care before, during, and after scenes. Subs, look out for and support and give your doms care. Doms, you are not 'less' of a dom for taking care of yourself. Like all relationships, a good dynamic involves mutual support and making sure the other person is okay.

Up until two and a half months ago, whenever Brooke needed to settle down, she would smoke. After sex was no exception--after Vanessa was settled in bed and taken care of, Brooke would slip out on the balcony, pack in hand, and let her dom-self fall away with every drag of the cigarette between her fingers. 

She’d breathe in the burn down her throat, breathe out the tension in her muscles. Breathe in the bitter taste of tobacco, breathe out the echoes of Vanessa’s crying mewls in Brooke’s ears as she brings the flogger down again over the smaller queen’s skin. 

She’d breathe in a habit she always had, and breathe out the myriad of personas she took on to make the last hour and a half fun. 

Now, though, it was different. The pack normally in her grasp was gone. The balcony had traded ashrays for flower-pots, spit marks and stray burns for clean, sun-bleached concrete. Fights over health and coping instead became a quiet, affectionate peace. 

Vanessa still cuddled into bed to come into herself on her own time, but Brooke continued to jitter with excess energy until there wasn’t any left to bounce around in her chest. 

“You good, baby?” Vanessa looked up from the movie they were watching to kiss Brooke on the cheek, a worried frown written across her face.

“Huh? Oh, um, yeah.” Brooke wasn’t lying, not necessarily--she was trying to be, and she would be, eventually; all she needed was time. But Vanessa was never one to let the truth go for long, and so her frown deepened, the young queen reaching up and gently guiding Brooke’s chin down to look her in the eyes.

“I thought so.” she blinked as Brooke blushed, involuntarily gliding her eyes away. Fuck. She hadn’t meant for Vanessa to see what was actually going on, but that in itself was the problem. As oblivious and tornado-like as Vanessa seemed to others, in reality she was able to analyze any situation with one look, a careful gust of wind trying its best not to disrupt the puddle it was blowing across. 

“Look, I know you gave it up for me, but--” Vanessa started, but Brooke shook her head.

“I don’t need it.” Another not-lie; she didn’t need it. She needed the release it gave her, but shit, what else had filled that void so far?

“You need somethin’.” Vanessa grumbled, looking away, and Brooke realized with a jolt how gruffly she had just spoken, how resentful the words had come out sounding. 

“I’m sorry.” she sighed, pulling Vanessa close and feeling a wave of comfort when Vanessa let her. “I just… I’ve still got half a foot in dom-space, you know what I mean?”

Vanessa nodded. “This routine ain’t bringin’ you down like smokin’ used to, I knew that. But Brock--”

“I don’t want to quit, I told you.” Brooke winced at how sharp the words sounded again, but this time, Vanessa didn’t even flinch. 

“Well, we gotta find you somethin’, then. ‘Cause I can’t have my boo feelin’ uncomfortable and not taken care of.” 

They stayed in silence for a moment, Vanessa thinking and Brooke trying not to, when Vanessa finally perked up. 

“Bitch, I got an idea.”

\--

The answer that Vanessa came up with to Brooke’s problem was so simple that Brooke was shocked she didn’t think of it herself.

“Now, I know you ain’t think I need no more shoes, but they ain’t for me, they’re for your nasty-ass toes,” Vanessa mused as she practically threw a pair of brand-new running shoes in Brooke’s face a few days later. 

“Get up, get all your leather shit on, we ‘bout to get some cookies.”

“Jo--” Brooke frowned, but Vanessa shook her head. 

“Trust me, bitch. We gonna get you into that space, then you can try out runnin’. I think it’s gonna be exactly what you need.” Vanessa’s encouraging smile would almost be comical if what she was saying didn’t make complete sense. 

Two hours later, Brooke found out that Vanessa was absolutely right. Her feet stung as they dropped heavily onto the pavement with each stride. The intensity of the feeling was matched only by that of the burning in her lungs while breathing in the cold dampness of early-November air, expelling the tension from her body just as fast with every exhale. 

Vanessa was probably sleeping at home, shaking off their scene by letting her dreams take up the space that Brooke had just occupied. For the first time since they crashed into bed together, though, Brooke wasn’t thinking about Vanessa. 

She wasn’t thinking at  _ all _ \--the only pictures in her brain were the street under her steps, the road in front of her. The cloudy sky above her, the first few drops of rain coming down to meet the sheen of sweat rising on her forehead. The burn that was building in her thighs as she propelled herself further and further, not following any pre-planned route at all. 

By the time she got back home, she was as wet from the rain as she was from her own sweat, and her mind felt completely clear.

“Did it work?” Vanessa’s voice was still thick with sleep when she lifted her head from her pillow, blinking awake to watch Brooke try to squeeze into their room. Brooke was already peeling off her clothes, and felt almost as though she had been snapped out of a daze when she registered Vanessa staring at her from the bed. 

“Oh, hi, booboo.” Brooke smiled warmly. “Did you have a good nap?”

Vanessa sat up, the covers sliding off of her slightly as she stretched widely. “‘Bout as good as always. How was the run?”

Brooke felt her smile spread wider involuntarily as she kicked off her pants, sitting down on the bed to reach her socks. She cried out in surprise, though, when a swat landed on her side, followed by a stream of curses.

“Bitch, are you tryin’ to get the sheets wet? This shit's new, I don’t want it smellin’ like wet dog before it’s even a week old!” Vanessa scolded, “Shit, maybe runnin’ worked too well, you actin’ a fool and it ain’t even been forty-five minutes since you left.”

Brooke shrugged, shivering against the cold air that hit her still-damp, newly naked body as she stood up and looked around for a towel. “Everything just feels good right now, babe. Like, I’m alive, but in a different way?”

Vanessa mumbled something unintelligible, but Brooke nonetheless thought she caught a little smile on the younger queen’s face as she stood up and followed Brooke into the shower.

“I like you like this,” Vanessa finally broke the silence as they let the water hit them, their flesh turning red under its heat as steam rose around them. “It was worryin’ me for a while, seein’ you so tense after sex.” 

Brooke nodded, grabbing their bottle of shampoo and squirting some into her hands before practically dumping the sticky pool onto Vanessa’s head, squealing and jumping back just before Vanessa had a chance to swipe back at her. 

“You a lil’ bitch, you know that?” Vanessa rolled her eyes when they finally settled back, melting into Brooke’s touch as she began to work the shampoo into Vanessa’s scalp. 

“You love me and you know it.” Brooke laughed. Her joke, though, was met with only a soft, soapy kiss.

“I missed you, baby.” Vanessa wrapped her arms around Brooke as the stream of water washed thick clouds of white down their bodies, “Welcome back.”  
  


**Author's Note:**

> As per usual, don't don't don't take this at face value, please. Do your research before doing ANYTHING kink-related. My fics don't count as research. 
> 
> Hope y'all enjoyed!


End file.
